


Everything has changed

by GaneWhoo



Series: Supercat prompts and Co [5]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Carter Grant pov, Carter watches Supercat happen, Carter's take on his mother, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 13:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10022732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaneWhoo/pseuds/GaneWhoo
Summary: At first, he didn’t notice it.It was strange and yet not so much because for all his perceptiveness and cleverness, he was still a teenage boy with a nerdish passion for sciences and a hopeless crush on Supergirl.The awareness came later, slowly but surely.Nothing changed, not really. Everything was almost the same but somehow, he just felt it. A shifting in the world surrounding him, subtle and light and yet strong enough to affect him. It was all around him from the air he was breathing to the feeling of the concrete under his feet, a sensation almost as unreal as a dream and yet very grounded, as if anchored in the reality of his life.The balance of his world was moving, changing, evolving and it all revolved around only one person.





	

At first, he didn’t notice it.

It was strange and yet not so much because for all his perceptiveness and cleverness, he was still a teenage boy with a nerdish passion for sciences and a hopeless crush on Supergirl.

The awareness came later, slowly but surely.

Nothing changed, not really. Everything was almost the same but somehow, he just felt it. A shifting in the world surrounding him, subtle and light and yet strong enough to affect him. It was all around him from the air he was breathing to the feeling of the concrete under his feet, a sensation almost as unreal as a dream and yet very grounded, as if anchored in the reality of his life.

The balance of his world was moving, changing, evolving and it all revolved around only one person.

That someone was the only constant in his life, the one person that stayed throughout the chaos of his young years, through the discovering of his atypical personality and the rough days with a father who couldn’t possibly understand what it meant, through the developing passions for sciences and superheroes and the learning of some life hacks and techniques to deal with each passing day, through the changing of schools and the board games night.  
She was his first memory, his best-friend, his confident and so much more.

His mother, the CEO of an empire she had built herself and without absolutely no help, the most influential person in National City and even probably in the entire coast, was the unmovable rock in his life.

He was young but he was smart, clever and perceptive and he could tell his mother was … something.

He loved her to the moon and back but he knew full well she was abrasive with her impossibly high standards, her obsession with perfectionism and the way she would never take no for an answer. She wasn’t one to praise but she was the first to criticize, constantly pushing herself and everyone around her and driving some people to their point of no return in less than a week sometimes.

He knew all of that because for months, she would come home with anecdotes about incompetence and laziness, always involving the cohort of assistants that desperately tried to fulfill her every needs. From there, he had guessed how much of an impossible boss she was. He knew she was balancing her behavior with excellent benefits and a rather fair salary scale but those were invisible perks, easily pushed aside by a snarky comment or an impossible errand to run.

Then one day, she came home without a word for the poor unfortunate soul having gotten the assistant gig back.  
That not so unfortunate soul lasted, lasted and lasted and one day, he even met her. He should have guessed right away. His mother never trusted anyone with him and yet suddenly she was handling him to her assistant so clearly, something was different but he didn’t think too much of it.  
Kara Danvers, a smiling young girl with a spring in her step and a tendency to stutter and ramble was someone so far away from his mother’s standards that he first thought it was a joke.

Then he saw the look in his mother’s eyes, after the hug he gave her to reassure her he was fine.

That’s when he noticed the shift in his world, the subtle change in the balance of his life.

His mother should have fired Kara on the spot for everything that had happened to him when he was supposed to be under the girl’s supervision. He did disappear to get on board of Maxwell Lord’s super train and then a terrorist almost blew up said train but thanks to Supergirl, he was safe and sound but Kara should be suffering his mother’s infamous wrath right now. Yet, nothing happened.

His mother just told him to hold on to his memories and that was it. Kara Danvers, with the glasses, the summer dress and the colorful cardigan, was safe and still smiling as she waved him goodbye.

He thought of it in the elevator and then in the car on his way to the school. He came to a realization that shocked and frightened him at once.

His mother was changing.

He watched her more closely for the following months. She looked happier, lighter, easier. Of course, she was still tackling her employees on a regular basis and even Kara sometimes was in the line of fire but it was rather innocent compared to what he knew his mother was capable of. She was a journalist, a reporter above all and her way with words was a double-edged sword but somehow, it seemed less lethal lately, more playful even.

His mother, of all the people in National City, was changing and he was well-placed to know she wasn’t easy to change.

Supergirl went rogue a few weeks later and then suddenly, his mother was back to the woman she used to be. He noticed the bags that lasted under her eyes, the dullness on her face and the automatism in her smile and he could tell she wasn’t doing well. He heard her screams some nights and the feeling of helplessness made him angry.

She never stopped believing in Supergirl though, he realized it when he listened to her inspirational speech. It was broadcasted on live and he felt very proud of her.

However, she wasn’t truly back to the woman he had gotten used to, the more playful one.  
She was still wary and he noticed she didn’t come out on her balcony so often anymore. He tried to ask her about what had occurred with Supergirl but she knew he was still holding the hero in high esteem so she never told him. She protected him and he was conflicted about it.

She never talked about Kara anymore but a new name was added to the litany of comments about her employees, someone named Siobhan. He never asked but from what he understood, she was a second assistant and even he felt betrayed on behalf of Kara but he never said anything. His mother was obviously hurting from Kara’s recent behavior and he was trying to protect her by avoiding the subject.

In the end, Kara came back in his mother’s good graces and life carried on.

He watched as his mother became somehow softer, kinder and easier around the edges.

It took him long enough to realize that she wasn’t really changing, not fundamentally anyway.

For as long as he could remember, she had always been kind and soft and caring but he simply never knew how privileged he was to see it.  
To anyone else, she was Cat Grant, media mogul, ruthless reporter and CEO of her own empire, she was abrasive, inquisitive, ambitious, truth-obsessed, aiming for perfection and never happy with herself. She was a pushing, driven workaholic and she refused to show any of what she considered “soft” emotions.

For thirteen years, he had been the only one to know the woman behind the CEO. Then, out of the blue, someone else was able to see the real Cat Grant and not just the persona she presented to the rest of the world.

He began to casually ask about Kara, from time to time. Simple questions about the color of her cardigan, the number of errands she performed, the documents she corrected and stuff like this. Small things, details really. Things a CEO would have never noticed but his mother answered each and every question without even taking the time to think. She just knew, because she had paid attention and she had noticed.

He asked one day for how long Kara was her assistant and he saw his mother’s eyes sparkle with something that looked a lot like fear. She didn’t answer and he let it go.

A few days after his mother’s strange phone call during what seemed like the dawn of apocalypse in National City, he learned about Kara’s sudden promotion. He read a lot about what had happened but most of the articles and interviews were vague and he knew that meant the government had censured the real events. His mother refused to tell him but she did explain that Supergirl saved the day, once again.

There was something different about his mother lately but he couldn’t figure out exactly what. She sounded a little off but she was smiling more often, freely. From time to time, she would look ahead and get lost in her thoughts and he noticed she had a lot more free time.  
Then one day, she told him she was taking a leave of absence from CatCo and he felt the world crumble underneath his feet.

This was a big change, a sudden one and the precious balance he had reached in his life was all thrown off by it. The feeling of normalcy disappeared the minute she finished her sentence and he was struggling to come to term with the consequences, not even envisioning them all.

He asked why, he asked how and he tried, really. He tried to see what the point was but he could tell his mother wasn’t even sure. She said something about swimming in the same pool for too long and wanting to try something new but he hated change, especially when it was so brutal and presented to him without any warning.  
He wanted to support his mother’s decision but he was scared and already thinking through every possibility but he knew too little about all the facts here, he didn’t have all the cards to play this game. All he could see, on the short-term, was his mother going crazy without a purpose every day, day after day.

It went smoothly enough at first, he thought everything would be fine but he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. He knew his mother better than anyone else and he could tell she was growing restless, being annoyed and bored most of the time wasn’t doing any good to the woman who was the former CEO of a never sleeping empire.

That’s when he noticed how lonely she was. She had some friends but not the kind she could call for a coffee or a drink and almost every single of her relations was work-related. She went out sometimes but she never really enjoyed it, he could tell by the pursed lips and the casual shrug, the general attitude when she was coming home afterward. He ached for her. He was now fourteen and he was starting to realize he couldn’t help his mother with her social life. He wanted to, desperately but he was just a young boy already struggling to make a few friends on his own.

He asked, one night as she was coming home from a charity event, if she had thought about calling Kara Danvers.

She looked dumbstruck, surprise and incredulity etched on her face as if he had just said something highly improbable. She shrugged with a little laugh and didn’t answer so he insisted. She said Kara was work related and she wanted to avoid anything to do with her former work.

He smiled and shook his head, calling her a liar and she made a slightly angry face. He said she was just afraid to call and just to prove him wrong, she called. Carter smiled smugly and she accused him of doing some kind of reverse psychology on her. He gave her a wink and went to his bedroom.

A few days later, he saw his mother getting ready for a date. He didn’t ask anything and she didn’t tell him, simply asking for him to be reasonable with the food and not to watch A series of unfortunate events without her. She said she will probably be home before his bedtime anyway.  
She wasn’t and the next day, she looked more relaxed and happy than ever.  
He didn’t ask, she didn’t tell.

It took her a month to tell him she was seeing Kara on a regular basis, now. He frowned and simply corrected her, phrasing it as she was dating Kara now. He noticed the slight blush on her mother’s cheek but he was smart enough not to push it.

Three months later, he discovered Kara in his kitchen making pancakes while singing an old song in what sounded like Spanish. He stared for a few minutes before taking his spot at the counter island and she put a plate full of pancakes in front of him, simply saying hello. He nodded to say it back and that was it.

He learned about her true identity somewhere about a year after that scene in the kitchen. Nothing big or dramatic, it was rather a typical Danvers moment. Kara simply forgot about him not knowing and she ripped her shirt in the middle of the kitchen, flying out the window merely a second later. He gaped at the now empty kitchen for like a few seconds and then he went on with it. His mother sat him down the same evening to tell him she didn’t want to hide it from him but that it wasn’t her secret to tell. He simply nodded and said that obviously, Kara was comfortable sharing it with him. His mother sarcastically replied that it was either that or Kara was simply being her clumsy, not-so-subtle self.  
He preferred to think that Kara was so at ease with him that she simply acted without overthinking it, naturally. He liked this explanation and Kara confirmed it later, apologizing for keeping the secret for so long but saying she was glad he now knew.

Three years later, he watched Kara fidget with her hands and push her glasses on top of her nose in a nervous way. They were alone in the penthouse since his mother was away in a business trip.

The former CEO had finally found her new calling as the president of a women’s rights association that helped women all around the world. It wasn’t new nor very original but Cat had brought all her well-earned knowledge and influential contacts in the new job and in a matter of months, she had become the reference on the subject. She had already met the president a few times to sign laws and policies regarding the women’s rights.

He sighed and simply asked her to go with it, to ask what she had in mind. He was almost eighteen and he already knew where she was getting at but he figured he had to let her do it.

She asked for his permission to propose to Cat and he simply said yes. Then she said she would ask him to be her best man but that his mother would probably want to do it. She was right and they both knew it.

It didn’t end on a happily ever after and many more children.

It actually doesn’t end at all.

They are still married and living together, Kara being the new CEO of CatCo Worldwide Media and his mother still being the president of her women’s rights association and somehow, they manage to find time for themselves and their friends, their little family.

Some nights, his mother waits on the balcony for Supergirl to return and some days, Kara is looking up to the sky to seek the plane that will bring Cat home.

It’s not a fairy tales and sometimes, they fight to no end like the power couple they are. It’s angsty, it’s fueled with worries and concerns and divergences of point of view but they always come to an understanding, a compromise, a solution because they love and support each other no matter what.

_They always will_ , Carter thinks with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys,
> 
> I found that in my tumblr the other day and I realized some people actually liked it so, here it is now on AO3! You gotta love that kid, seriously.
> 
> I'm on tumblr and I take prompts, so feel free to come submit ideas! **lost-your-memory**
> 
> Let me know if you liked it ;)


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